family groups - grandparents - Geldof patron

Geldof's support for grandparents

Bob Geldof is to become honorary patron of a Glasgow-based group which campaigns for grandparents to have access to their grandchildren.
The celebrity contacted the founder of Grandparents Apart Self-Help Group Scotland to offer his support.
Jimmy Deuchars said he hoped Mr Geldof's backing will help their fight.
Mr Deuchars, 60, set up the group in 2001 after his daughter died and his son-in-law's new wife denied him access to his two grandchildren.
The organisation has 65 full-time members and branches in Glasgow as well as elsewhere in Scotland.


The group has taken its battle for visitation rights for grandparents to the Scottish Parliament and to Westminster, where it gained the support of Livingston MP Robin Cook.
Mr Deuchars said: "Sir Bob phoned on Friday after I wrote to him, and asked all about our group and said he agreed and wanted to be honorary patron so we're delighted.
"We don't want the same rights as parents but are looking for something like the situation in the US where grandparents have visitation rights.
"I wouldn't want my worst enemy to go through what we went through when we couldn't see our grandkids.
Custody Battle
"The 1989 Children's Act made grandparents nobodies, we want to reverse that.
"Grandparents have more patience and experience than parents and much more time on their hands - parents are often so busy working - what goes on between a grandparent and a grandchild is just magic and no court should be able to stop that."
Mr Geldof is a veteran campaigner for fathers to be given equal access to their children when a marriage breaks down.
The former Boomtown Rats frontman underwent a bitter custody battle after his late wife, TV presenter Paula Yates, left him for INXS singer Michael Hutchence in 1995.
The courts eventually granted him full custody of their three daughters in 1998.